Boss Mick McCarthy says the Blues don't want to sell 27-goal Championship top scorer Daryl Murphy this summer. The 32-year-old has been the subject of much speculation since his outstanding 2014/15 campaign.

McCarthy dismissed suggestions that Town already having made the £8 million sale of Tyrone Mings to Bournemouth would make a difference to Murphy’s situation and confirmed that he wants to keep hold of the Irish international, who is contracted for another year with the Blues having an option for a further season.

“Tyrone Mings going doesn’t mean anything, to be honest with you,” he said. “We don’t want to sell Daryl Murphy, we don’t want to lose Daryl Murphy.

“He’s still on a break because he’s only had a couple of weeks [off since being away with Ireland]. That’s what I’ll be telling him, and his agent - we want to keep him.

“He was the outstanding striker in this league last season and it would be difficult to fill his boots. We’re going to try and keep him.”

Fellow Ireland international David McGoldrick, Christophe Berra and Kevin Bru, who have been away with Scotland and Mauritius respectively, will also return a couple of weeks late but the Town manager believes they’ll benefit from the longer break.

“Pre-season friendlies don’t interest me or affect me,” he admitted. “They come back two weeks after the rest and I think they’ll still be just about ready for the start of the season. If they’re not we’ve got other lads who have come in.

“But they’ve got to have a rest, they’ve got to have a month off in my view. In 1988 when I was at Celtic I played in the European Championships and I came back and I got two weeks off.

“It was the best pre-season I ever had, I was flying. But in the September somebody took the batteries out of my back and I’d gone completely.

“So, having experienced it myself, I understand that you need to get away from the building, to just get away from football for a while and chill. Having had the experience myself, I think they need a month off, so that’s what they’ve got.”

Photo: Action Images

jas0999 added 06:18 - Jul 1 Good news,ut we didn't want to sell anyone, but have already sold Mings. If the offer is a good one I think Evans may sell which will be a shame.
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Benters added 06:47 - Jul 1 So Murph is off then !
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carsey added 07:15 - Jul 1 This sounds ominous how ever you read it. Look to me like Murphy is on the way out of Portman Road.
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Len_Brennan added 07:15 - Jul 1 Not as reassuring as we'd like. I would be more confident with a "No way" rather than a "We'll try".
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ArnieM added 08:09 - Jul 1 Yes it seems Murphy might be on his way. But putting a practical hat on here - he is 32yrs old - was last season his swansong? This maybe our best opportunity to cash in on him, providing ( and I'd trust MM totally here), to find a suitable replacement.
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Lord_Mac added 08:46 - Jul 1 But it's up to us. It's not up to the person under contract. So "if we don;t want to lose him" means anything, then surely we won't. It wouldn't make any sense, because it would cost us more to replace him than to sell him.
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elalaer9 added 08:56 - Jul 1 Was I the only one who read the words "we don't want to sell, we don't want to lose Daryl Murphy"?! Anyone would think he's already signed somewhere else! He's far more valuable to us than anyone else because of his age, but he's got 3 more years of being an all round good player for town.
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ArnieM added 09:30 - Jul 1 Lord Mac, its pointless trying to keep a player who wants to leave, and Im NOT saying Murphy wants to leave. Hes away on his hols at present and its just clubs talking. Which i suspect is why MM says he wants to keep the player, asvhe hasnt had time to talk to the player. I think Murphy will use this to gain a bettercdeal at Town.
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Guthrum added 10:07 - Jul 1 It's a weird world where the message "we don't want to sell" is received as "we've already sold".
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Akaroablue added 10:33 - Jul 1 I have just heard that Jonny Williams is signing from Palace for 4 mill! from a Palace friend at NO4 bar in Merivale Ch-Ch NZ, my comment was 2 mil too much!
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runningout added 11:49 - Jul 1 Nice we have interest for a couple of our players in sleepy Ipswich... :-)
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Lord_Mac added 13:45 - Jul 1 >ArnieM added 09:30 - Jul 1 Lord Mac, its pointless trying to keep a player who wants to leave, and Im NOT saying Murphy wants to leave..I think Murphy will use this to gain a bettercdeal at Town.< So do I. Don't quite agree though that it's pointless trying to keep a player who wants to leave. It can be important to put down a marker that if we sign a player for X years, then they can expect to play for us for X-1 years, because that;s what we have paid for i the contract, otherwise we are in danger of giving away our assets for less than they are worth and we'll just be seen as a soft touch where a payer can get a good contract deal, but break it when it suits them. Whether or not to sell is a complex balance of what it costs to keep them, what it costs to replace them and what we can get for them.

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strikalite added 16:30 - Jul 1 Why would he leave for Mboro?? If a Prem Club came in then I think he'd go, no disrespects to Boro but what would he gain from it?
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Pilgrimblue added 23:09 - Jul 2 I can't believe they'll offer him much more than we do so why would he want the upheaval. If he gets 20 goals that would be great, it's the rest we need more from. His partnership with Freddie could be as good as we've had for long time so I think he'll stay
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